Break field characters to check

Description

Should the entire field be checked, or just a specified number of characters? For example, in a list of people, you might break on the Lastname field and set the number of characters to check to 1 to check the first character. Set the value of this property to -1 to check the entire field.

For example, here is a random list of tree species compiled with the help of Wikipedia.

images/check.png

By default the 'Break field characters to check' property is set to -1. This means that all of the characters entered in one row of the tree field will be compared against all of the characters on the row below it. If there is one mismatch, then the second row will get its own group break. As a result, because there are no repeated tree types, each entry will get a group break.

images/check2.png

If the 'Break field characters to check' is set to 1, then only the first character of each Tree species will be compared. As a result, any consecutive rows starting with the same character will now all be grouped together. This is without the 'Sort on break property' turned on.

images/check3.png
Set to 1, only first character is compared

Used in combination with the 'Sort on break field' property the 'Break field characters to check' property can be quite powerful. In this case it can define group headings by their first charcter and then sort those groups Alphabetically:

images/check4.png
After 'Sort on break' is defined

...or form a break group using multiple characters...

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'Break field characters to check' set to 2 with sort.